From riches to rags to nursing

July 24, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Elizabeth "Bibi" Galvez celebrates the completion of a naturalization ceremony June 27 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Galvez said she is grateful to be in the United States because it has offered her the opportunity to change her life. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Elizabeth Galvez, with her best friend from Santa Ana College Reyna Saribia, before their graduation ceremony. Galvez, 62, graduated from the school with an associate degree. A licensed vocational nurse, she is applying to nursing programs to get her RN. CHAS METIVIER, FOR THE REGISTER

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Bibi Galvez raises her hand while reciting the Oath of Citizenship during a naturalization ceremony June 27 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Galvez, who came to the United States from Ecuador in 1999, plans to attend nursing school in the fall. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Elizabeth "Bibi" Galvez celebrates the completion of a naturalization ceremony June 27 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Galvez said she is grateful to be in the United States because it has offered her the opportunity to change her life. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A bit after Elizabeth Galvez's plane touched down on New Year's Eve, fireworks went off.

The year was 1999 and Galvez was coming to Los Angeles to visit her newest grandchild.

Galvez didn't know that within three weeks, a military coup in her home country, Ecuador, would topple the government. Or that her three-month vacation would be anything but.

The businesswoman who used to employ domestic servants also didn't know that she soon would be one herself, or that 13 years later, at 62, she would be starting a new career at an age when most Americans are finishing theirs.

CHAOS IN HER HOME COUNTRY

In the late 1990s, Ecuador's economy – and Galvez's real estate business – was in tatters. Inflation hit 60 percent. Gas prices doubled. Protesters took to the streets.

Galvez insists she had no plans to overstay her visa, but the chaos back home changed that.

When she told her two youngest children that they would not be returning to Ecuador, they burst into tears. What had started as a family vacation was the beginning of a new life – one without cooks, maids and Nintendo 64.

Galvez's tourist visa did not allow her to work. She had no experience as a nanny. She hadn't spoken English regularly since the sixth grade. Still, the recruiter found work for Galvez, as a nanny for an Anaheim Hills family with four kids.

For a time, the arrangement felt good. The family lent Galvez a Suburban. They furnished her apartment. They provided annual passes to Knott's Berry Farm for Galvez and her kids. After months of worry, Galvez's future felt brighter than it would have in Ecuador.

But the honeymoon didn't last. After eight months, the mother in the Anaheim Hills home accused Galvez of pawning her necklace. Galvez says she didn't – and wouldn't – steal. And when the Register recently reached Jack Amoroso, the father in that family, he confirmed that the necklace was eventually found. But not before the accusation cost Galvez her job and the lifestyle that came with it.

"In a few hours, I lost everything," Galvez said. "I felt completely naked."

For five nights, her family slept on the floor of the now empty apartment. Galvez remembered her children's voices echoing off the bare walls.

Three nights after losing her job, Galvez was doing laundry in the basement of her apartment. A concerned neighbor asked if she was OK, and Galvez burst into tears.

The woman, who Galvez now describes as one of her "guardian angels," told Galvez about the PennySaver, where she could buy some cheap furniture to fill her apartment. She even offered to lend Galvez money to buy a car.

But, most important, the woman turned Galvez on to community college.

EDUCATION IS HER TICKET

Galvez was already well-educated. Her private school experience in Ecuador helped her pass the General Educational Development test and an entrance exam for a Regional Occupation Program, despite her patchy English.

By 2003, she had completed the coursework to become a certified nurse assistant. She took the classes even though the school told her that, without papers, she would not receive an official certificate.

"She wouldn't take 'no' for an answer," said Mila Paunovic, an associate professor of nursing at Santa Ana College who used to teach for the ROP.

"She really cared about the quality of her education" and the care she provided her patients, she said.

Galvez had no trouble finding work caring for disabled seniors in Orange County. Then, after her oldest daughter became a U.S. citizen in 2003, Galvez was able to get her own green card. That year she went back to school to become a licensed vocational nurse. She graduated two years later before returning to school again in 2009 to earn her associate degree – all while working full time.

Nancy Zinberg, 77 – one of Galvez's earliest employers – lauded Galvez's nursing skills, describing her as the kind of nurse who teaches patients how to help themselves.

"She's the hardest-working woman I've ever met," Zinberg said.

"I love that you can give and receive," said Galvez, who works for four agencies that cater to disabled patients. "Many of (my patients) can't talk, but there is a body language that expresses love with every gesture, every smile ...

"What you can't express with words, you express with energy."

BECOMING A U.S. CITIZEN

On June 27, the same day the U.S. Senate passed an immigration reform bill, Galvez stood up in the Anaheim Convention Center, raised her right hand and took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America, capping a decadelong process to becoming a naturalized citizen.

"I was thanking God to be in a country where I am still useful to the people around me," said Galvez.

But Galvez has goals.

She is applying to become a registered nurse through a program at Santa Ana College. RNs make 30 to 50 percent more than vocational nurses, which would allow Galvez to get health insurance (which she doesn't have) and perhaps make a down payment on a home she can one day leave to her children.

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